


Other Worlds

by la_topolina



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Falling In Love, Rare Pairings, Star-crossed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:48:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26308078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/la_topolina/pseuds/la_topolina
Summary: On Halloween night, young Andromeda Black wanders away from Hogwarts into fairyland.
Relationships: Andromeda Black Tonks/St Mungo
Kudos: 2





	Other Worlds

Once upon an All Hallows' Eve, Andromeda Black was tiptoeing through the dungeon of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, on her way to liberty. The common room was choked with Pureblood posturing and, while she was one of their number, she could not stand the stifling correctness of it for another second. As she rounded the corner near the carved mermaid, she slipped off her school robes. The carving giggled and lifted her tail for Andromeda to hide her unwanted clothing, and the girl shoved it into the crevice, grateful for any aid to her escape.  
  
Now clad in jeans, black trainers, and a black t-shirt, she started to run on soundless feet. At the end of the hall she ran her hand over the third stone to the left of the fairy ring painting, and the wall swung open to reveal a dark passage. From here it was a short walk to the boathouse outside, and she was already planning which vessel she would purloin for a midnight sail on the inky lake. When she reached the upper world, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. It had been a warm autumn, and the last ghostly perfume of summer still lingered under the low-hanging moon.   
  
As she opened her eyes, she noticed a rosebush flanking the entrance to the boathouse where one had never been. Its leaves were a bright green, and a single, perfectly white blossom crowned its head. Entranced by its beauty, she reached out and plucked the flower, thorns and all.  
  
“Hold the door!” ordered a voice behind her.  
  
“What?” she replied, turning towards the strange sound.  
  
“The door!”  
  
There was a young man in robes that were so out of date that she wondered if he were a Muggle-born dressed up in a costume the way they liked to do. There was even a sword strapped to his belt. His long brown hair was tied back from his face, and his blue eyes were flashing with anger. He rushed past her to the castle door, but it shut with a snap before his fingers could touch it. Before their eyes, the door vanished from sight, replaced by impenetrable stone. It was bathed in a strange blue light, and as Andromeda looked out over the landscape, she knew she was no longer at Hogwarts.  
  
A forest had sprung up around them, the twisted branches of the trees undulating in a hot breeze. Above them shown three moons; one blue, one silver, and one red. There was a chattering in the darkness beyond the edge of the trees, and Andromeda pulled her wand from the back pocket of her jeans. Although she was still uncertain if the young man at her side was friend or foe, he was at least human, and she drew closer to him instinctively.  
  
“Who are you?” she asked. “And where are we?”  
  
“Mungo Bonham, at your service,” he said with a courtly bow. “I am not sure, but I believe we have wandered into the realm of the fair folk. Are you, perhaps, one of them?”  
  
“No, I’m only a witch. My name is Andromeda.”  
  
“Forgive me, Lady Andromeda, your clothing is strange to me.”  
  
She blushed and frowned at him. “So is yours.”  
  
“I beg your pardon. A witch then? I had thought I knew every good witch at Hogwarts School.”  
  
“You go to Hogwarts too?”  
  
“I do.”  
  
She swallowed hard, recalling the lesson they’d had earlier that day. Professor Binns had been droning on and on about Saint Mungo—but surely this boy could not be the _same_ Mungo.   
  
“Mungo, what year is it?”  
  
He raised his eyebrows. “The year of our Lord 1256. Why do you ask?”  
  
“When I stepped out of Hogwarts tonight, it was 1970.”  
  
He crossed himself. “Sweet Mother of God.”  
  
Before they could further discuss their plight, a trill of dangerous laughter rang out of the forest, and a small man with dragonfly wings and moss green eyes appeared. He darted towards the hapless humans, and Mungo drew sword and wand, stepping between Andromeda and the fairy.  
  
“It is not time for that kind of game,” said the fairy, vanishing Mungo’s weapons with a twitch of his nose. “It is time for dinner. You will come with me.”  
  
A chill went down Andromeda’s spine as she and Mungo were compelled to follow the fairy into the dark woods. As they walked over a path that only the fair one could see, she tucked the rose into her hair, and hid her wand in her back pocket. After a time, Mungo offered her his arm, and she took it. It was warm and firm, and she was comforted to know that she was not the only human in these woods tonight.  
  
At last they came to an exquisite Manor, finer than any of the Pureblood houses that Andromeda had ever seen. Its walls were made of thick, colored glass, and its turrets stretched up almost to the moons themselves. Fairies and dragons were traveling back and forth between the sky and the Manor, busily beating a path between the world above and the world below. The sight was so beautiful that it terrified her, and Mungo put a hand over hers, urging her to be brave.  
  
The fairy led them into a great hall set with long tables—much like the one at Hogwarts—though the ceiling here was open to the sky. They were taken to the head of one of the tables, where chairs appeared behind them and crawled underneath them, forcing them to sit. Soon they were joined by many other beings—fairies, elves, goblins, dragons, and wondrous creatures that Newt Scamander had never catalogued in this books. The voices of the fair folk hurt Andromeda’s ears, and when Mungo saw her distress, he reached across the table to press her hand.  
  
Plates appeared, filled with foods of many colors. There was no meat, but there was a rainbow of plants to tempt her. Andromeda was very hungry, and as the creatures around them began to eat, she could not help but join them. The first bite was unbearably bitter, but soon it seemed to be the sweetest food she’d ever tasted. As she ate and ate, her mind became more and more clouded, her memories slipping away with every swallow.  
  
“My Lady Andromeda?” said Mungo, his low, urgent voice cutting through the fairy chatter.  
  
“What did you call me?” she asked, blinking up at him. “And who are you?”  
  
“I suggest that my lady eat no longer. This fairy food will have consequences heavy for mortals to bear.”  
  
She had half a mind to spite him, but the earnestness in his eyes gave her pause. Once again, the strange voices and the terrible beauty around them began to frighten her, and she closed her eyes, breathing deeply and searching for the truth. Memories began to drift back to her, and though she could not quite grasp them, she knew that neither she nor the young man before her belonged to this fairy hall.  
  
“Talk to me,” she said as she fought to remember.  
  
They talked of many things, exchanging secrets and stories. The fair folk around them ate and ate, and Andromeda felt strangely at home opening her heart to this boy from days long past (even if he was a Gryffindor). In spite of the years separating them, many troubles and amusements remained the same, from the thrill of exploring the Forbidden Forest, to the tediousness of some of the classes. Mungo told her of his fervent wish to be a knight (and she was careful not to give away all she knew about his future); she told him of her desire to travel the world and learn other magics (and he confessed to being envious of how much more of the world was available to her).   
  
Eventually they realized that the fair folk had ceased their eating; and the plates tables vanished. A band of elven musicians began to play a weird, wild music that filled the hall and made Andromeda itch to dance. Mungo stretched out his hand to her, but before their fingers could touch they were snatched away by the fairy court and dragged through the steps of a dance that their feet performed without their minds knowing how.   
  
On and on they danced, until Andromeda felt her strength fading and her heart growing faint within her. Mungo, across the hall from her, looked similarly ill, and she could see the frustration in his eyes when they met hers across the room. But still the fairies spun her round and round, and she was sure she would either be sick or perish.  
  
At last her hand slipped out of the grip of the fair one next to her, and she stumbled to a halt near the musicians.   
  
“Quick, girl, what will you give me to free yourself and your lover?” hissed a being with bird wings and a cat’s head as he strummed the silken strings of a lute made of a folded palm leaf.  
  
Andromeda thought feverishly, knowing that this respite would be a brief one. “I have my wand.”  
  
The cat-elf scoffed. “What good will a human wand do me? Try again.”  
  
“I don’t have anything else…wait, will this do?”   
  
She pulled the rose from her hair and held it out to the elf. He yowled with pleasure as he snatched this payment, his claws scratching Andromeda’s hand and leaving shallow, bleeding gashes behind.  
  
“Go, girl, and catch hold of your companion or you’ll both be lost here forever and a day,” he purred.  
  
She did not need to be told twice. The fairy band struck up a waltzing tune, and Andromeda careened between the dancers that were busy pairing up to dance over the marble floor. Two fairies were bickering with each other over Mungo when she reached him, and she slid underneath them to grab his hands. His arms went around her, and they began to dance—not the most graceful pair, but surely the most thankful. As they spun, they rose up in the air, up over the fairy crowd, up through the ceiling, past the triple moons. They clung tightly together as they drifted upwards, and when they were amongst the stars, Mungo and the world seemed to fade away.   
  
“Thank you, my lady,” Mungo said, brushing her fingers with his lips as he vanished.   
  
Andromeda blinked, and when she opened her eyes, she was in the boathouse again. The castle door stood open, but the rosebush had shriveled into a gnarled brown mass of thorns. She went inside the castle, her heart full of her adventure and perhaps aching some for the young wizard she’d saved and lost. She collected her robes from behind the mermaid, but did not bother to put them on as she slowly went back to her dormitory. When she reached her bedchamber, she found her history book on her pillow where she’d left it from her afternoon’s study. As she picked it up, the pages began to turn, stopping at last in the middle of a long ballad.  
  
_The fairy ring will never be_  
_For those of mortal blood,_  
_Good Mungo’s eyes were sad to see_  
_The fading of the wood._  
  
_He left behind a maiden fair,_  
_A nymph of later years,_  
_She’s in his heart forevermore,_  
_Andromeda, accept his tears._  
  
She blinked back her own tears as she read late into the night, knowing now that she was the Andromeda in Saint Mungo’s ballads, and knowing that she would never meet him again in this world. But, throughout her life, when trials pressed down on her, she sometimes felt his invisible presence close at hand, offering her support and shelter. Then she would comfort herself with the knowledge that there are many other worlds where those who love might yet meet.

**Author's Note:**

> While I did take Mungo's last name from the Harry Potter fan wiki page, I am totally ignoring everything else it says about him. If you'd like to know more about my take on St Mungo, check out my story The Life of St Mungo.
> 
> I think that humans get into trouble with the fair folk because we do not understand their laws or the way their world works.


End file.
